Lars of Mars
Golden Age Origin Lars of Mars was a law enforcement agent of the Supreme Council, the ruling body of Mars. When the Supreme Council learned that a hydrogen bomb was successfully tested on Earth, it became alarmed. The hydrogen bombs were used in a devastating war between Mars and Venus millions of years ago, and the Council was worried that humanity would start the war anew once it enters space. They decided to send Lars to Earths a peacekeeping agent who would stop any possibility to interstellar war by fighting against "forces of evil" that would seek the disrupt the peace. When he arrived on Earth, Lars witnessed a woman being attacked by two robots, but after attacking them he discovered they were merely actors. June Conway, the TV producer, assumed that Lars was a wanna-be actor who chose a particularly creative way to audition for a lead row in her TV show - the Man from Mars. Lars decided to play along, figuring that it would be a great cover for his real mission. From that point on, he worked as a lead actor and fought the "forces of evil" in his spare time. That included criminals, Soviet agents and other people who wished to cause harm. He was aided by the Interplanetary Intelligence Department - the Martian intelligence agency that monitored other planets throughout the Solar System. Powers and Abilities Lars was an athletic man skilled in many edged weapons and firearms. Like other Martians, he had strong lungs that allowed him to survive without oxygen for several minutes. Lars had telepathic abilities, which he used to hypnotize Jun and seek out a person he wanted to help. However, it is not clear if those abilities are common to all Martians or if it was something that only Lars could do. Lars' suit included a rocket pack, telescopic goggles, microphones that could pick up sounds thousands of kilometers away and a two-way communicator that allowed him to receive alerts from his superiors and intercept Earth-based radio signals. The rocket pack allowed him to accelerate up to the speed of light. Once he reached that speed, he could jump into an alternate dimension and use the "space warp" as a shortcut. Lars used a "power-ray" gun that had multiple settings. In essence, it could function as a heat ray, a freezing ray and a tractor beam. The heat ray's power could be adjusted - it could be mild enough to shoot weapons out of his opponents' hands and powerful enough to blow up an enormous factory with a single blast. In addition to his suit, Lars used Martian equipment which somehow wound up in his penthouse. This included a two-way video and radio communicator and a device that amplified his telepathic abilities.. Golden Age Appearances * Lars of Mars #10-11 Notes * The cover artist to Lars of Mars #10-11, Allen Anderson, also did a cover for another Ziff-Davis book Weird Thrillers #2 which featured the Fisherman of Space. * Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Lars of Mars, is most famous for co-creating Superman with Joe Shuster. See Also Golden Age Hero Directory Pulp Artists Category:Comic Book Characters Category:1951 Debuts Category:Jerry Siegel - Creator Category:Murphy Anderson - Creator Category:Sci-Fi Heroes Category:Martian characters Category:Ziff-Davis Characters Category:Eclipse Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Protagonists Category:Telepathic Characters Category:Hypnotist Characters Category:Teleporting Characters Category:Speedster Characters Category:Flying Characters